All Purpose UFC/MMA/That Kind Of Thing Thread

Yeah, Lesnar's been training for MMA since he gave up playing in the NFL, I believe.

As for Kimbo, he's got less than a year's worth of true training under his belt.

Tonight was his third fight. Lesnar's got just one to his credit.

 

Gina Carano is so fucking hot.

 

Most enjoyable part of the evening by far. And a decent bout too.

 

She had one kick that was just incredible. She couldd kick my ass seven ways from Sunday. I can't believe, coming from that background, she's become an MMA fighter.

 

Were it not for the Lawler/Smith fight, I would have voted the Carano fight the best one of the night.

Great end to the second round, with the other girl getting choked out but refusing to tap and then being saved by the bell, only to have the doctor stop it.

Looks like Tarzan fights like Jane award goes to: Phil Baroni, who got punked in 1:11, I believe, in his own backyard.

 

Yeah, Baroni was a freaking joke.

Lawler/Smith was a damn good matchup, and I was pleasantly surprised by the Slice fight. Showed him in a different light than he's ever been in. For my first MMA viewing experience — unless you count Slice's streetfights — I was highly entertained. I think CBS just picked up a new fan.

And Carano sure as hell doesn't hurt.

 

I'm fucking pissed. Ever since I read a story on Kimbo in the Miami Herald a few years ago while on vacation in South Beach, I've been waiting for the chance to see him fight. Been pumped for this all fucking week. I had to work, so I set the TivO and I avoided the details/results. When I set the TiVo, I even taped the 35-minute news broadcast immediately after just in case it ran over. Apparently, I needed to record the NEXT program as well. Fucking bullshit. My TiVo cut off in the middle of the second round.

I still haven't seen the rest of the fight. Anyone know where I can watch it?

 

Pride lost its network television deal in Japan due to reports that Dream Stage Entertainment, who owned Pride, was basically a Yuzuka front company. After the Fuji Network dumped Pride the owners were unable to get a new network deal. Pride then became untenable. Removing the network money from the equation changed everything. When they were unable to get a new TV deal they were forced to sell. Dana White and the Fertitta brothers, who own the UFC, bought it. There was some talk of running it as separate entity but it was eventually folded. The parties involved in the Pride purchase are currently suing one another.

K-1 is kickboxing. That said, in the past they would sometimes have MMA matches on their cards as well. In 2005 Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) who own K-1 formed HEROS, an MMA company.

This year FEG folded Hero’s and formed DREAM, an MMA company, with many of the former Pride front office staff.

Another other promotion that arose out of the ashes of Pride is World Victory Road. World Victory Road now has, much like Pride did, a deal with the Fuji Network.

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That Elite XC show was bad.

It should come as no surprise that James Thompson isn’t very good. He has been around a while and this has been known for a long time. He was booked against Kimbo because he has a China chin and is very good at getting Koed. Going into the Kimbo fight in his last eight fights he was 2-6. All six of those losses were by stoppage.

To steal a quote from an MMA website on Kimbo and Thompson….

http://www.total-mma.com/2008/06/01/elitexc-on-cbs-what-exactly-were-you-expecting/#more-314

That said, I have always had a soft spot for Thompson due to his 11 second fight with, Fedor’s younger brother, Aleksander Emelianenko. I found the stare down and following fight most amusing.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/james%2Bthompson/video/xop3l_aleksander-emelianenko-vs-james-tho_sport

It was a bad show. I also think that it exposed Kimbo. There has been talk of him being a prospect. On the basis of that performance I don't know about that. When you compare him to, say, Brock Lesnar or Shawn Carwin I don't know how many similarities there are.

It’s not that Kimbo didn’t destroy Thompson that is the problem. It’s more that there are obviously crater sized holes in his skill set.

 

I still haven't come across an explanation about Thompson's ear. That wasn't normal cauliflower ear.

It was inflamed and filled with blood, so why wasn't it drained before the fight? Should we get DocTalk to look at the photos?

 

And that's the shame in it. I wouldn't try to push the sport on anyone, but this was nowhere on the level of the UFC. It'd be like watching the arena league and thinking you saw football. Read the Wetzel column linked a few pages back. It breaks down the fact that last night was basically a sham.

And I know everyone says they're disgusted by the sport, but at the bar I was at last night everyone was glued to the screen during the Kimbo fight, and this wasn't an MMA crowd by any stretch.

 

WFW. And that's why I'm so conflicted with Kimbo Slice. It's great that he's bringing so many new eyeballs to the sport, but he's a horrible representation of what MMA has evolved into.
Like you said, it'd be like watching the Arena League and thinking "So that's football? Ugh, that fucking sucks."

 

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